Feeding their Egos with Illusions of their own Grandeur

First there were progressives. Then there were liberals. Self-proclaimed super geniuses. Regular Wile E. Coyotes. Smarty-pants know-it-alls. You can’t tell them anything. Because they know everything. While you aren’t even smart enough to know what’s good for you. But that’s okay. Because they have taken it as their personal mission in life to run our lives. To protect us from ourselves. To tell us what to eat. What to drink. How to raise our kids. How to educate them about the important things in life. Fairness and multiculturalism. Not math and science. They teach us about the evils of greed. Our greed. Not theirs. They can keep raising taxes to take our money so they can play with it. But if we complain they say we hate teachers. And children, of course.

These people start their government careers in the Ivy League. Where they don’t learn anything useful. They get law degrees. Or some degree in the social sciences. Public policy. Philanthropy. Degrees where they learn how to take other people’s money without providing anything useful in return. All the while feeding their egos with illusions of their own grandeur. They develop the cutting edge of progressive/liberal thought. Most of it nonsense to you and me. But in their little Ivy League world they’re saving the world. Even though they have no idea of how the world works. Understand things economic. Or the role of energy in a developed economy. They haven’t the foggiest idea about any of these things. But they feel that only they are qualified to regulate these things. Because they care about us. And the planet. Not profits.

Liberals are also not the manliest of men. They get in touch with their softer, feminine side. Get in touch with their feelings. Some even cry. Cowboys they’re not. They’re into conflict resolution by diplomacy and timeouts. They can be mean and nasty. Partake in some of the worse character assassination. But never alone. Or without the power of the state to protect them. You won’t see them get into any fights. Because when it comes to actual fisticuffs, they’re not as brave as their words. They’re the worse of bullies. Weaklings that have others bully for them. That’s why these people watch soccer instead of football. Why they don’t hunt. Why they hate the military. They don’t like any manly behavior. Or manly men. No doubt from growing up in a childhood full of wedgies and swirlies.

Big Government and High Taxes

Much of a progressive’s/liberal’s life is spent getting even. And the best revenge is living well. And they sure do that. Live well. Better than most of us. And with our money. Either money gained through some frivolous lawsuit. From the ‘overhead’ costs of the charitable organizations they ‘work’ for. (Some keep more than 50% of all donations for their ‘operating’ expenses. While the new healthcare legislations allow insurers to use no more than 20% of their premiums on their operating expenses. How’s that for fair?) High taxes. Or kickbacks from the industries they regulate.

Those in government hate those in business. Just like they hate the jocks and bullies in high school who tormented them. But they hate business people for a different reason. Because they have talent. They’re able to create something people willingly pay for. They can’t. Of course they can play god over these people who have talent. And they do. Which makes up for their feelings of inadequacy. It’s sort of a love-hate relationship. They love taking their profits. But they hate them because they have profits.

People need to feel a purpose. And so it is with progressive/liberals. Sure, having our money is good, but floating through life in the lap of luxury leaves them with an empty feeling. Normal people may feel guilt over taking so much of our money. They just feel bored. Like rich kids who get in trouble because they have too much time on their hands. Bored rich kids get in trouble. Bored liberals write legislation. Exploit class warfare. And go about redistributing our wealth. They take money from the ‘rich’ people who have jobs or own businesses and give it to the needy. And the more of these people you support with other people’s money, the more they will keep voting for you. This allows the liberal to live a long life in politics. Strokes their ego. And fills that empty feeling they have from being the worthless waste of spaces they are. And this is why they do what they do. Keep government big. And taxes high.

Projecting Force to Protect National Security Interests

Liberals want power. They want to expand government. And expand the welfare state. They always have big plans when they run for office. They are never content to sitting back and let the free market work. Because that’s no fun. They want to control that market. Using some bad economic theory (i.e., Keynesian Economics), they do. They say it’s to make the markets more efficient. But that’s not the reason. It’s the power. The getting even. And getting their hands on all of that money.

When presidents come out of the Ivy League, their heads are filled with a lot of progressive/liberal thoughts. Ideas about income redistribution. Fairness. Multiculturalism. But little about business. Or the real world. And as leader of the free world, that can be a problem. Constitutionally speaking, the president’s responsibility is the real world. The president is the commander in chief of the armed forces. The president treats with foreign nations. And appoints and receives ambassadors. Nowhere in the Constitution will you see the president being responsible for income redistribution for fairness in a multicultural welfare state.

When a president goes in with an aggressive domestic agenda he comprises his Constitutional responsibilities. It’s like a kid playing video games instead of doing his homework. It’s fun. But there is a cost. The U.S. is a superpower. And leader of the free world. The president’s tools include military force, foreign aid and diplomacy. And a powerful domestic economy that makes all of this possible. If a president focuses on domestic policy over his foreign policy, both suffer. The high taxes reduce economic activity. Which reduces tax receipts. And this makes budget deficits. The progressive/liberal will not want to cut the domestic spending. So they cut military spending and transfer it to the domestic side. And borrow money. Or print it. Weakening both the military. And the economic well being of the nation. Which weakens the president’s ability to project force to protect national security interests.

An Inconvenient Truth: We Need Oil Flowing at Market Prices

Of course, with the liberals’ disdain for the military and the military industrial complex, they don’t care. They don’t believe there are any dangers out there. And, if there are, it’s because we brought them upon ourselves. For being bullies. I mean, who are we to be a superpower and leader of the free world? That’s just sticking our nose into other people’s business. It’s time we stop. Let other people live their lives. Besides, it’s a different world today. We don’t need standing armies or aircraft carriers. Who’s going to invade us?

True, the chances of a D-Day type invasion landing on our shores is remote. But there are other ways to attack our country. 9/11 comes to mind. And there is economic warfare. Have you enjoyed the Great Recession, the greatest recession since the Great Depression. Probably not. Do you remember how it started? With $4/gallon gasoline. Do you remember how horrible that was? People were demanding Congress do something about it. Amazing, isn’t it. How high gasoline prices can trigger a recession (of course, the subprime mortgage meltdown changed that recession into the Great Recession). Keeping oil flowing at market prices, then, is a U.S. national security interest. Because a spike in gasoline prices will crash the healthiest of economies into recession. Of course, this goes contrary to everything a progressive/liberal holds true. But it’s an inconvenient truth they need to learn.

That’s why we’re in the Middle East. We may get more of our oil from Canada, but we get some from OPEC. More importantly, our trading partners do, too. If that oil supply to the Western economies gets shut down, we will suffer a recession closer to the Great Depression than the Great Recession. Oil is important to national security. Income redistribution isn’t. Or using the military for humanitarian purposes. As bad as the suffering was in Darfur, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, etc., we can’t help everyone. It would stretch our military too thin, cost more than we can afford and risk the lives of those in the military on a mission that doesn’t impact national security. And all of this would impede the president in carrying out his constitutional responsibilities. Protecting our national security.

We need Grownups in Charge of our Foreign Policy

Presidents often hailed for their great domestic agendas (FDR and LBJ, for example) have created economic messes that future generations have to clean up. And because their real interests were in domestic policy, they bungled their foreign policy. FDR may have rallied the nation to win World War II, but his naïveté gave us the Cold War. And LBJ’s Whiz Kids mismanaged the Vietnam War so badly that the fallout nearly ignited a civil war in America. The country changed. And it’s never been the same since.

Kids don’t like doing their homework. They’d rather play their games. In this respect progressives/liberals are very much like children. They, too, like to play their games. And don’t like to do their homework. But the world is a dangerous place. We need to do our homework. To learn the lessons of history. More importantly, we need grownups in charge of our foreign policy.